Quote:
Originally Posted by Galakanokis
Not a benching, more of a break. I haven't been happy with their play for awhile now. They are two of the better skating, passing and offensively minded D men in the league. But their actual defensive play has been very suspect to me lately. Brodie alone had nearly two disastrous turnovers today. They might be tired or just in need of a shake up.
I have also never been overly keen on the pairing for the long term so now is a good a time as any to try things out.
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I guarantee you they
are tired. They're playing 25-30 a night and we're not talking soft Erik Karlsson minutes just standing at the blueline playing keep-in while the forwards cycle. They're constantly covering for neutral zone turnovers, high offensive zone turnovers, and then getting banged up in their own zone by relentless forechecks, the last three games have been especially physical on them. This team's refusal to clog up the neutral zone makes their minutes absolutely brutal. I'm not saying we need to trap, but the reality is the kind of minutes Gio and Brodie are playing are not minutes that any elite pairing in the league has to play. We need to get these two a break, and it will start with a middle pair that isn't bleeding profusely, which the Engelland middle pair is. We need Wideman back, and yeah I know Wideman has his issues but he's still way more of a capable NHL defenseman than Deryk Engelland.